Can anyone kindly point me in the right direction here please?
I have a set of devices (A, B, C ... Z) which are all simple switches and might independently be in an "on" or "off" state. What I'd like is a dashboard button which will switch them all to "off".
It seems I can't use a "scene", because I don't want to have to cancel the scene and I don't want to stop devices being turned back on.
It seems I can't use a group, because I'd have to switch the group "on" before I can switch it "off" again.
I just want a simple trigger switch which will turn everything that's "on" to "off", and then let everything go about its normal buiness. Can I make some sort of "virtual push button" and use it as a Rule machine trigger?
Actually, you CAN use a Group for this. There is an option when creating a group that will send commands to the devices regardless of whether the 'Group Device' is in the opposite state or not. Just disable the "On/Off Optimization" as shown below.
I tested this scenario this morning with group as shown above. Are you using something as a toggle control? During my testing, with the group defined as above, pressing OFF on the group device always turned off any of the devices in the group that were on, even though the group’s status was ‘off’.
But that won't work from a dashboard because pressing the device when it is off turns it on. You can do this through a momentary button tied to the group device through rule machine but if you are going to do that, why not just do it directly?
Ahh, that explains it. Personally, I very rarely use dashboards for anything. Most lighting is automated based on time of day, illuminance, motion, and contact sensors.
